Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Now that we have established that Hanan Ashrawi, new Huffington Post blogger, is a Holocaust denier, terrorist supporter, anti-Semite and obstacle to peace, let's actually take a look at what she has to say. I hope you have braced yourself because it's pretty shocking.

Huh. Well that was a bit boring. I was expecting something a little more interesting. Though I guess if she had shared what she really thought it would have been too much even for the Huffington Post. Let's take a look, though she hits the usual Palsbara talking points just the way you would expect:

"Dani Dayan stated, with no diplomatic ambiguities, that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are an "irreversible fact" and claimed they are "not going anywhere." Mr. Dayan is a leading figure in the settler movement that is comprised of a half a million Israelis who have built cities, towns and villages on Palestinian land stolen and in some cases illegally annexed by Israel."

I had never heard of Dani Dayan before this article, but about five seconds on Google reveals that he's another obvious strawman. He opposes a two state solution (just like the author by the way) and is pro-settler. Of course his opinion is in the minority in Israel but we can't expect a Palestinian Authority propagandist to be dissuaded by the facts now can we. So now ready for the most common talking point of all? Here comes Ms. Ashrawi's version of the Fifth Great Anti-Zionist Strawman.

"And that is the whole idea behind the illegal settlements -- to put so many concrete facts on the ground that if there ever were an agreement of two independent states, the settlers in their fortress tower blocks and militarily-defensible hilltops would make it impossible in practice."

As I have said a million times before, it only makes a two state solution impossible if one of those states insists on being Judeinrein. If the Palestinians could find it in their hearts to accept Jewish people as neighbors then the settlers could build as much as they wanted and it would make not the slightest difference to the peace process. That's what both Arafat and Rabin knew when they signed the Oslo Accords (in which the settlements are not mentioned) and I'm sure Ms. Ashrawi knows it as well. She just needs to find an excuse for why her bosses won't negotiated and seized upon the one most likely to earn her some sympathy on the Huffington Post. And so logic gets thrown out the window yet again.

"Mr. Dayan has stripped away any pretense about the expansion of settlements, which are deliberately making a Palestinian state nearly impossible. The consequence of this must be that Israel ceases to be a democracy, since the permanent settlement of Palestinian land can happen only by one people subjugating another by force."

Again, boring talking points are boring. However she clearly admits that Israel is a democracy now, so that's a start. Her PA could learn a lot from them. Speaking of which, ready for a sliding scale of morality?

A professional terrorist whining about her people getting "beaten up." Compared to the horrendous crimes of the PLO, a vandalized mosque looks pretty good by comparison. If you are going to get upset about me using this moral comparison between settlers and terrorists, then save it. I'm sure Ms. Ashrawi wouldn't hesitate to point the finger at Israel to justify any number of Palestinian crimes. Oh wait, as we determined in our last blog post, she already has!

Now comes the point at which she pretends to be in favor of the two state solution:

"Surely successive U.S. presidents have been right all along to believe that the better way of ending this deadlock is to have two free countries living side by side in lasting peace. This outcome has many virtues, including that it is democratic, that it is moral, and that it guarantees everyone the political freedoms which much of the world has taken for granted."

Yes that's right. A member of the PLO lecturing us about democracy, morality, and political freedoms. I'll be sure to pass this paragraph onto Walid Husayin and see what he has to say about it. We'll skip a bit more complaining about Israel and then finally get to the good stuff:

"It is rare to see anyone openly admitting to a belief that Israel must permanently hold Palestinians under occupation, showing contempt for other people's freedom, history, and culture. Where Mr. Dayan is not honest is in failing to admit that brick by brick the settlements are burying our freedom. He never explains how the settler strategy can be reconciled with democracy because it cannot. Surely, the United States must see that this is not a strategy it can support while proclaiming its belief in freedom. Freedom must be for all, not just for the militarily strong."

The thing is, this would be a decent article, if not a particularly original one, if it had been written by anyone else. But coming from a member of the PLO and the PA, some of the most repressive regimes this side of Syria, it's just the ultimate in hypocrisy. Maybe when you start giving your own people freedom and when you start respecting the lives of security of everyone, maybe then you can lecture to us.

But clearly Ms. Ashrawi, and her Huffington Post backers, have no shame at all. And hope that the rest of us forget about history as easily as they do.

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